SEC's liquidity staking approval causes staking Layer 2 tokens to rise | CoinDesk JAPAN

• This week, the SEC clarified its views on liquidity staking, leading to a continued rise in this sector, with Ethereum surpassing $4000 for the first time since last December. Lido and EtherFi also saw significant increases.
• The Layer 2 network of the Ethereum blockchain also rose in line with Ethereum. The token OP of Optimism increased by 13% over the week, Blast by 6.3%, and the token MNT of Mantle surged by 50% due to strong adoption of optimistic rollup technology.
• This movement makes it possible to attract funds from institutional investors who have been cautious about DeFi yield products. Furthermore, legal experts point out that liquidity staking tokens may eventually be incorporated into ETFs.

Multiple Layer 2 networks are also benefiting from Ethereum's recent rise. The native token OP of Optimism, Ethereum's scaling solution, has risen by 8% in the past 24 hours and 13% over the week, solidifying its rise. The competing network Blast has also risen by 6.3%.

Mantle, which adopts optimistic rollups to process transactions off-chain before settling on the Ethereum blockchain mainnet, has achieved the highest rise in this group, with the MNT token increasing by 50% over the past week.

[MANTLE/USD (TradingView)]The staking sector has shown overall higher performance than the entire market, with Lido (LDO) rising by 12.3% and EtherFi (ETHFI) rising by 5.4% in the past 24 hours.

The clarification by the SEC came after last month's very brief "altcoin season." During this period, there were continued cases where altcoins showed significant movements against Bitcoin (BTC).

The clarification by the SEC may lead to an influx of funds from institutional investors. Until now, institutional investors have been investing in assets such as Ethereum, but previously, they could not earn yields through decentralized finance (DeFi) due to it being in a regulatory gray area.

Rebecca Rettig, a member of the legal team at Jito, pointed out that the SEC's announcement suggests that liquidity staking tokens could be incorporated into ETFs (Exchange-Traded Funds).

| Translation & Editing: Rina Hayashi | Image: ETH/USD (TradingView) ｜Original: SEC Green Light on Liquid Staking Sends ETH Past $4K, Spurs Broad Staking and Layer-2 Rally